Information about the Visegrad Group (V4)

The V4 is a group of four cooperating countries of the Central Europe – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The Group has been established so that its members b could reach the advanced level of West-European democracies as soon as possible. The group’s primary aim is to strengthen mutual cooperation and form there the impact of the member countries. Its unofficial name is the Visegrad Four.

All the countries of the Visegrad Four (V4) were working towards membership in the European Union. This goal was reached on 1 May 2004, when they became the EU Member States. Within the EU, the Group makes efforts to promote optimal cooperation with all the countries and strives for democratic course of the whole Europe. Consequently, the V4 does consider itself neither a competitor, nor an alternative to the EU.

V4 meetings deal with a very wide range of topics at various levels, starting from coordinating cooperation in EU administrations and aligning attitudes to issues of key importance, from energy sector and education to security topics and coordination of armed forces. If we consider that V4 countries have the same number of votes in the EU Council as France and Germany together, the group may well influence the direction of the EU.